The Story of a Book Wagon

The
Story of a Book Wagon
By Mary Holland Burchenal
Reprinted March 2000
Division of Libraries
State of Delaware
An investigation made by the Delaware State Library
Commission in 1911 revealed to the Commission the fact
that the men and women and boys and girls of the very
remote country sections have little reading material that
will afford them entertainment and recreation and that will
act, at the same time, as a mental stimulus and create in
them a desire for wider knowledge; that they do desire
and do enjoy such reading material when placed in their
hands, as is evidenced by the fact that twenty-two (22) out
of twenty-six (26) boys and girls read one hundred and
three (103) books from a single traveling library placed
in a school in a very remote neighborhood; that these people
have time for reading, especially in the winter and on stormy
days, and that they do not have the attractions of the city
to consume their leisure time. To the Commission this
condition was an opportunity, and it was in order to take
advantage of this opportunity which the rural district af­forded,
and in order to meet just this, their need, which our
system of traveling libraries had not met in many sections
that the Book Wagon of Delaware was evolved and sent
out on its initial trip.
The Commission realized immediately that however
good the books it might have to offer, however organized its
system might be, however improved its facilities for making
these books accessible, all would fail without a good agent
fitted for this work. The Commission realized that person­ality
in this case was power; that a fortunate, tactful ap­proach
to farmers and farmers' wives and children meant
success; that an unfortunate approach meant failure; and
so the Delaware State Library Commission secured for two
of its counties two women who measured as near to this
standard as it was possible to do, namely, Miss Mary L.
2
Hopkins, of Seaford, Delaware, to take charge of the Sussex
County Book Wagon, and Miss Beatrice Mast, of Dover, for
the Kent County Book Wagon. The results of their work
have been most gratifying.
Some extracts from Miss Hopkins' report of the work
at the beginning and some from the reports in the last few
months will show the increase in interest, and will prove
the value of the Book Wagon. In the summer of 1912,
when the Book Wagon made its first trip, there is the fol­lowing
paragraph in Miss Hopkins' report:
"There could not have been a less favorable year or
season in which to have tested the plan. Not for many
years has there been such an abundant crop of fruit, and
everybody has had to work to save even a part. On my
first trip, I found the families in the cantaloupe patches,
and on the second gathering tomatoes for the canneries.
Camp meetings too, were at their height, furnishing recre­ation
for the country people on Sundays. But in spite of all
these things, I believe you will agree with me that the test
I was a success as far as the interest shown.
"Route 1 covered about seventeen miles by the road
(the lanes to the houses would probably add four miles
more). This lay through a very good farming section, and
the majority of the people are quite comfortable. If they
do not own books, it is not so much that they cannot afford
to buy as that they do not know what to select. This route
has thirty-seven (37) families, which include one hundred
and seventy-one (171) individuals. On the first trip I loaned
seventy-four (74) books; on the second ninety-eight (98).
"Route No. 2 covered about the same distance. This
lay through a very poor, sandy section, and the quality of
the land is reflected in the general culture of the people. I
left sixty-one (61) books in thirty-seven (37) homes, num-
bering one hundred and forty-nine (149) members.
"The third route was longer, harder and least inter-
3
esting of all, and therefore probably the one that needed it
most. The roads were poorer, the farms poorly worked,
more remote from towns, and the people more spiritless.
I left fifty-nine (59) books with twenty-nine (29) families,
composed of one hundred and twenty-six (126) individuals,
on my first trip. On the second trip I left seventy (70)
books. On the last two routes I found a number of men
who could not read, but there was always a woman or child
who could save the intellectual credit of the family. One
refreshing incident was finding a young man who had walked
six miles twice a day last winter to attend a High School.
It would seem that a comparison of the number of books
loaned on the first trip and then on the second trip, together.
with an appreciation of the busy season during which it was
tested, proves at least the interest of the people in the plan.
They were a unit in their desire to have it made permanent.
"Many more books might have been loaned had they
been better adapted to the needs of the people. This was
particularly true of the fiction, for which there was a large
demand. Scott and Dickens, and even some books of history
and travel, are all over their heads, unless written in a very
popular style. There was a demand by some of the older
women for religious books. The Domestic Science books
which were adapted to the farm life have been very popular.
On one of my trips my horse was fed by a young man in
blue overalls, who turned out to the son home on his vaca­tion.
He is a professor in the Boston School of Technology.
I have enjoyed the work, because it has given so much
pleasure to the people, old and young. But best of all, I
liked it for the help it will be to the children in helping
develop characters which will prove a blessing to the county
and the State."
In a later report of the first year, she writes:
"Now that the children are at school and the fathers
out at work, the business is transacted with the mother,
4
And she usually prefers judgment to her own. As to the
interest, it shows no sign of abating. Mothers tell me that
the books are read over and over again. In many cases the
whole family reads the same books. A small proportion
of the farmers are interested in the books on farming, but
the majority prefer to read the farming papers, which are
very reasonable in price, or else they do not read on the
subject at all. Some of the women are much pleased with
the books on plants, and a large number with some of the
domestic science books. A number of the mothers ask for
Bible stories and tell of their appreciation of those in cir­culation.
More books of the type of 'Master Bartlemy' or
'The Thankful Heart' will fill a large demand. I came near
losing a family by leaving for the boy Kipling's Jungle
Book. The mother thought it a sinful thing. I saved the
day by giving her one of Dr. Miller's little books, and I trust
the next time I go she will permit the boy to take a book
for himself.
"I am adding new families each time from other
roads through the co-operation of friends on the routes.
Last Saturday night a boy brought a friend to my home in
Seaford to ask for a book, and two young men who had read
the books loaned from the wagon came to my house asking
for more. The mother in a family which will move off of the
route soon asked that her children may come to my home
for books, and a grandfather makes the same request for
two girls. 1 have decided to set apart Saturday afternoons
and evenings for any country people who would care to get
books. This may develop into something larger. There are
elderly people who can no longer occupy their time and
minds with work who are finding much pleasure in the
books.
"There is a cross roads on one of my routes with a
store kept by a man and woman of low moral standards.
The store is a gathering place for the rough fellows of the
5
neighborhood. I a leaving books at this place, and one of
the men, whom I call the 'Walking Speak-Easy,’ is reading
Light Horse Harry's Legion. There is an elderly woman
with nine children and grandchildren, four of whom are
sons ranging from eleven to forty-five years, none of whom
can read, as they say 'big words,’ who is reading our books
to them. These last two cases are not typical, but there
are others, and the work among them is truly missionary.
More stories for girls like Jean Webster, Mrs. Wiggin, Miss
Montgomery and a number of good novels for older people
are needed. Pride and Prejudice is quite popular.
"A merchant's wife was pleased with a poultry book,
and before seven o'clock the next morning (for I spent the
night at the cross roads) a neighbor sent for one on the
same subject. I am working an eductional book along with
the fiction in some families, but I am myself a hearty be-
liever in the mission of a good story to hard-working people
on the farm. I am prescribing for overworked mothers
Mrs. Wiggs and such other books, and I attribute one re­covery
where the doctor had given up hope largely to Napo-leon
of the Plush Rocker.
"In addition to the books, I carry along magazines (none
but good ones), which are greatly appreciated by the people.
I am sometimes guilty of carrying along a plant for some
farmer's wife, who shares with me a love of growing things.
When I return, the children of the neighborhood flock around
the Book Wagon to help carry in the good-will -offerings.
"I am off at seven o'clock in the morning, and even at
that hour frequently find the morning's work done in the
house and the women and girls out in the canteloupe or
tomato patches. But generally the books are waiting for
me on a chair or other safe place in the porch, and I exchange
them for others. These books on the chair are a mute testi­mony
to the ray of sunshine they are bringing to that house­hold.
The men are growing more interested and asking
6
For books on farming. One young man whose wife had
selected a novel for him on my first visit was present on my
second. He chose the Life of Lincoln, and said that suited
him better than love stories."
Miss Mast, who has used an automobile instead of a
wagon on the Kent County routes, writes in 1915:
''The first visits are rather trying, for the people almost
invariably think we are book agents, and do not want to
buy any'; when they understand, they are delighted' with
the plan and give us a hearty welcome. * * * We have
many requests for books from people not living on our
routes, and several of of readers take a number of books
and loan them to the neighbors around them, one reserving
a shelf in her book case for Book Wagon books, and having
at least twenty borrowers. * * * The little children are
much interested in the picture books, Jemina Puddle Duck
and Peter Rabbit being great favorites, and are always eager
for another story when the “Library Lady' comes. * * *.
The agricultural books are popular with the men. One man
said a suggestion in Handy Farm Devices had saved him
half a day's work. * * * Our only regret is that we
cannot reach all who would like to have books."
The second year Miss Hopkins writes:
"Every trip confirms my faith in the Book Wagon as
the simplest and most effective agency for developing the
good morals of the people whom it reaches. The Book
Wagon preaches no sermons, but places a book which very
silently and delightfully influences character and makes peo-
ple think. When I think about it I exclaim, 'Let me drive
the Book Wagon, and I care not who makes the laws of the
State. Oh, for some one of wealth who would send the
Book Wagon over all the roads in our county!'
"Judging from my experience so far, it requires a num­ber
of Book Wagon trips over a route to make it worth while .
to go at all. It takes time to form new habits; at least,
7
with grown-up people, and it also takes time for the 'Book
Woman’ to get hold of the mother on the farm to stimulate
her to look beyond the daily grind. Two or three trips will
not accomplish our purpose."
The following year new routes were added, and the
work increased. Miss Hopkins writes again:
"The people on these new routes are as pleased with
the Book Wagon as on the previous one, and I grow more
and more enthusiastic over the work. The young married
men are reading quite little, although I hardly know when
they do it. Often the wife will report her husband as saying
that if I will leave him as good a book as the last he will
be satisfied.
"The demand is almost altogether for fiction, although
there is a fair interest in other classes. I was pleased on
Friday when a twelve-year-old boy noticed The Boy Crafts­man,
and said that was just what he wanted. A mother
told me that her little girl had read her book twelve times.
The young women are enjoying the young girls' series which
was sent from the Commission recently. Miss Alcott never
fails to please, nor does Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, nor
Ann of Green Gables and Pollyanna (God bless her)! I
wish we had a half dozen copies. I loaned one of our copies
(we have two) to a sorrowing mother, whose grown son was
killed by the cars last summer, and she begged for another
book like it.
“I have been fortunate enough to meet some of the
younger farmers who are feeling the progressive spirit, but
hardly know how to 'move out.' There is a bright future
for our county, but so much of it is so isolated and some
of the men so handicapped by lack of education, that it will
mean a lot of work and patience on the part of those who
would help. The Book Wagon will be a great factor in
its development I am sure and if the season's work can
be followed up by a traveling library in each of the thirty-
8
five schools I shall feel that something has been accom­plished
and a permanent work done, as far as it goes. I
was much pleased with what one of the young patrons told
me last week. Her father is a tenant on a farm near town;
her mother is dead, and the father cannot read, but he
greatly enjoys the little girl's books. When she returned
Stories of Great Americans last Saturday she said her
father would say every evening before he got up from the
supper table: 'Now, Frances, get out your book and read to
me.' A number of loans from my house this winter (I
have loaned 690 books) have been to children and young
girls from the most needy sections. Our Woman's Club
supports a Free Library, but it is open only once a week
and then at night, and besides they have nothing like the
amount of juvenile literature that we have. Some young
girls who have been in the habit of roaming the streets at
night have read as many as thirty-seven (37) books in the
past three months."
In 1915 Miss Hopkins writes:
"The families are all interesting to me. There is an
old lady on one of my routes to whom I loaned Rebecca, with
the remark that I expected she would get so interested that
she would neglect her husband. At my next visit, she remined
me of what I had said, and said that she had not neglected
her old man, but feared she had neglected her Bible. She
had become so interested in 'that dear child,' as she called
Rebecca, that she would place the lamp on the floor and
sit down beside it to read after the old man had gone to
bed. When I made my next trip, she was deeply interested
in A Texas Blue Bonnet, which her work had prevented her
from finishing, so she begged to keep it and return later
by post. There was another interesting old lady on this
route to whom the books were a great joy. She had, in
the home a husband and son, both of whom were drunken.
Both of us were glad when I told her that a traveling library
9
would be placed in their district school, and that the teacher,
who passed by the home, would bring her books.
"A mile away a couple of young city breds, who had
been inveigled by a land agent into buying a poor farm,
more poorly located, excited my sympathy. I wanted to
get better acquainted, so whipped up my horse that I might
spend the noon hour with them. The wife gave me a cor­dial
wlecome and went to call her husband. They held a
long conversation in the barnyard, and I began to think it
would not suit. When they came to the Wagon, I suggested
that perhaps they did not have the horse feed to spare (I
take my lunch). 'Oh, yes,' he replied; 'but I'm afraid I
can't get the harness back on the horse right.' This gave
me pause, for I was not sure of my ability, but the plucky
little wife said she believed we could, and shamed me into
taking the risk. They were utterly ignorant of farm life
and work, and had suffered accordingly. His one horse had
died (the neighbors said through his ignorance). They
were glad to have the Book Wagon visit them and read the
farm books with interest.
"In my three years' experience, which has brought me
into contact with six hundred (600) families, I have had
but one man and woman who refused to have anything to
do with the Book Wagon. The man said the work was
started to give me a job, and had better be spent on the
roads. Upon questioning him, I found that he owned no
property, and therefore was not sharing very largely in
the expenses of the work. But most of the people greatly
appreciate the Book Wagon; but my faith in it is not based
on their expression of appreciation, but on my own convic­tions.
My contact is with the mothers, many of them
middle aged, who have little leisure and less inclination for
reading, but who are willing for the younger ones to read.
These latter are the enthusiastic ones.
"An interesting family was on my route this summer.
10
It js composed of a well-read elderly man and two single
daughters. The father was induced to read Pollyanna,
and on my next visit he informed me that a little calf had
come to them, and that he had named it 'Pollyanna.' Some
tired young mothers have gotten rested by reading the
books, and many men, young and old, have enjoyed the Life
of Lincoln, of which we have several copies.
"A new season is before us, and there will be new
people and new experiences, and, I am sure, new friends,
and the world will be a bigger, better place in which to
live because we have found them."
These extracts from Miss Hopkins' and Miss Mast's re­ports
need no comment. They speak for themselves; they
speak for the work; they speak for Miss Hopkins and for
Miss Mast.
Through the agency of the Book Wagon, the Commis­sion
feels that it is doing a work which the traveling library
never could have done. Up until 1912, the Commission had
been trying to meet this need of the country people simply
by sending out traveling libraries, and although they had
accomplished wonderful results in the country school and
Sundays schools, the Commission found that in many in­stances
those books were not reaching the mothers and
fathers and the homes in the remote rural sections. The
Commission had sent libraries to small towns that already
had struggling little libraries, to increase the number of
books on their shelves; it had helped the club women by
providing reference books for their shelves; it had not
reached the country; people in their homes. This was all
the more striking in our State, because Delaware's population,
especially in the two lower counties, is mostly rural.
And so the Book Wagon took up the work and carried it
where the traveling library could not go. The traveling
library stopped at the school house; the Book Wagon con-
11
tinued down the road to the individual home. The travel­ing
library was put down at the school house in a wooden
case; the books from the Book Wagon are handed out to the
farmer by a trained agent, who explains their merits, or,
perhaps, tells one of the stories contained in those books.
The traveling library lacks the personal touch; the Book
Wagon is filled with it. The traveling library comes into
contact with the younger children of school age; the Book
Wagon comes into contact with, the father and mother and
the children of all ages. The Book Wagon creates a desire
for new books and guides the reader; the traveling library,
having no agent, lacks that power.
It is not the intention of the Commission that the Book
Wagon shall continue forever, first of all, because of the
expense attached to its maintenance. It is the Commis­sion's
hope, indeed, it is its determination, that the Book
Wagon shall continue on every route until the people living
on those routes shall have become so filled with the desire
for good reading and so determined to have the books they
want, that they will go or send to that school or Sunday
school, corner store or library center in their vicinity, what­ever
it may be, for books from the traveling library that
has been placed there by the Delaware State Library Com­mission.
The Book Wagon is the library's educational me­dium
in creating the desire and habit of good reading; it is
the libary's advertising agency through which the library
is brought to the attention of those who could not otherwise
know of its existence. The Delaware Commission is con­vinced
that the Book Wagon is just as much a part of any
good State library system in its beginning as is the free
public town library and its branches, or the traveling library
of the country school or store or club. It is the conviction
of the Commission that any good State library system must
Carry books to the homes and seek the people until the
people eagerly seek the books.
12

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Transcript

The
Story of a Book Wagon
By Mary Holland Burchenal
Reprinted March 2000
Division of Libraries
State of Delaware
An investigation made by the Delaware State Library
Commission in 1911 revealed to the Commission the fact
that the men and women and boys and girls of the very
remote country sections have little reading material that
will afford them entertainment and recreation and that will
act, at the same time, as a mental stimulus and create in
them a desire for wider knowledge; that they do desire
and do enjoy such reading material when placed in their
hands, as is evidenced by the fact that twenty-two (22) out
of twenty-six (26) boys and girls read one hundred and
three (103) books from a single traveling library placed
in a school in a very remote neighborhood; that these people
have time for reading, especially in the winter and on stormy
days, and that they do not have the attractions of the city
to consume their leisure time. To the Commission this
condition was an opportunity, and it was in order to take
advantage of this opportunity which the rural district af­forded,
and in order to meet just this, their need, which our
system of traveling libraries had not met in many sections
that the Book Wagon of Delaware was evolved and sent
out on its initial trip.
The Commission realized immediately that however
good the books it might have to offer, however organized its
system might be, however improved its facilities for making
these books accessible, all would fail without a good agent
fitted for this work. The Commission realized that person­ality
in this case was power; that a fortunate, tactful ap­proach
to farmers and farmers' wives and children meant
success; that an unfortunate approach meant failure; and
so the Delaware State Library Commission secured for two
of its counties two women who measured as near to this
standard as it was possible to do, namely, Miss Mary L.
2
Hopkins, of Seaford, Delaware, to take charge of the Sussex
County Book Wagon, and Miss Beatrice Mast, of Dover, for
the Kent County Book Wagon. The results of their work
have been most gratifying.
Some extracts from Miss Hopkins' report of the work
at the beginning and some from the reports in the last few
months will show the increase in interest, and will prove
the value of the Book Wagon. In the summer of 1912,
when the Book Wagon made its first trip, there is the fol­lowing
paragraph in Miss Hopkins' report:
"There could not have been a less favorable year or
season in which to have tested the plan. Not for many
years has there been such an abundant crop of fruit, and
everybody has had to work to save even a part. On my
first trip, I found the families in the cantaloupe patches,
and on the second gathering tomatoes for the canneries.
Camp meetings too, were at their height, furnishing recre­ation
for the country people on Sundays. But in spite of all
these things, I believe you will agree with me that the test
I was a success as far as the interest shown.
"Route 1 covered about seventeen miles by the road
(the lanes to the houses would probably add four miles
more). This lay through a very good farming section, and
the majority of the people are quite comfortable. If they
do not own books, it is not so much that they cannot afford
to buy as that they do not know what to select. This route
has thirty-seven (37) families, which include one hundred
and seventy-one (171) individuals. On the first trip I loaned
seventy-four (74) books; on the second ninety-eight (98).
"Route No. 2 covered about the same distance. This
lay through a very poor, sandy section, and the quality of
the land is reflected in the general culture of the people. I
left sixty-one (61) books in thirty-seven (37) homes, num-
bering one hundred and forty-nine (149) members.
"The third route was longer, harder and least inter-
3
esting of all, and therefore probably the one that needed it
most. The roads were poorer, the farms poorly worked,
more remote from towns, and the people more spiritless.
I left fifty-nine (59) books with twenty-nine (29) families,
composed of one hundred and twenty-six (126) individuals,
on my first trip. On the second trip I left seventy (70)
books. On the last two routes I found a number of men
who could not read, but there was always a woman or child
who could save the intellectual credit of the family. One
refreshing incident was finding a young man who had walked
six miles twice a day last winter to attend a High School.
It would seem that a comparison of the number of books
loaned on the first trip and then on the second trip, together.
with an appreciation of the busy season during which it was
tested, proves at least the interest of the people in the plan.
They were a unit in their desire to have it made permanent.
"Many more books might have been loaned had they
been better adapted to the needs of the people. This was
particularly true of the fiction, for which there was a large
demand. Scott and Dickens, and even some books of history
and travel, are all over their heads, unless written in a very
popular style. There was a demand by some of the older
women for religious books. The Domestic Science books
which were adapted to the farm life have been very popular.
On one of my trips my horse was fed by a young man in
blue overalls, who turned out to the son home on his vaca­tion.
He is a professor in the Boston School of Technology.
I have enjoyed the work, because it has given so much
pleasure to the people, old and young. But best of all, I
liked it for the help it will be to the children in helping
develop characters which will prove a blessing to the county
and the State."
In a later report of the first year, she writes:
"Now that the children are at school and the fathers
out at work, the business is transacted with the mother,
4
And she usually prefers judgment to her own. As to the
interest, it shows no sign of abating. Mothers tell me that
the books are read over and over again. In many cases the
whole family reads the same books. A small proportion
of the farmers are interested in the books on farming, but
the majority prefer to read the farming papers, which are
very reasonable in price, or else they do not read on the
subject at all. Some of the women are much pleased with
the books on plants, and a large number with some of the
domestic science books. A number of the mothers ask for
Bible stories and tell of their appreciation of those in cir­culation.
More books of the type of 'Master Bartlemy' or
'The Thankful Heart' will fill a large demand. I came near
losing a family by leaving for the boy Kipling's Jungle
Book. The mother thought it a sinful thing. I saved the
day by giving her one of Dr. Miller's little books, and I trust
the next time I go she will permit the boy to take a book
for himself.
"I am adding new families each time from other
roads through the co-operation of friends on the routes.
Last Saturday night a boy brought a friend to my home in
Seaford to ask for a book, and two young men who had read
the books loaned from the wagon came to my house asking
for more. The mother in a family which will move off of the
route soon asked that her children may come to my home
for books, and a grandfather makes the same request for
two girls. 1 have decided to set apart Saturday afternoons
and evenings for any country people who would care to get
books. This may develop into something larger. There are
elderly people who can no longer occupy their time and
minds with work who are finding much pleasure in the
books.
"There is a cross roads on one of my routes with a
store kept by a man and woman of low moral standards.
The store is a gathering place for the rough fellows of the
5
neighborhood. I a leaving books at this place, and one of
the men, whom I call the 'Walking Speak-Easy,’ is reading
Light Horse Harry's Legion. There is an elderly woman
with nine children and grandchildren, four of whom are
sons ranging from eleven to forty-five years, none of whom
can read, as they say 'big words,’ who is reading our books
to them. These last two cases are not typical, but there
are others, and the work among them is truly missionary.
More stories for girls like Jean Webster, Mrs. Wiggin, Miss
Montgomery and a number of good novels for older people
are needed. Pride and Prejudice is quite popular.
"A merchant's wife was pleased with a poultry book,
and before seven o'clock the next morning (for I spent the
night at the cross roads) a neighbor sent for one on the
same subject. I am working an eductional book along with
the fiction in some families, but I am myself a hearty be-
liever in the mission of a good story to hard-working people
on the farm. I am prescribing for overworked mothers
Mrs. Wiggs and such other books, and I attribute one re­covery
where the doctor had given up hope largely to Napo-leon
of the Plush Rocker.
"In addition to the books, I carry along magazines (none
but good ones), which are greatly appreciated by the people.
I am sometimes guilty of carrying along a plant for some
farmer's wife, who shares with me a love of growing things.
When I return, the children of the neighborhood flock around
the Book Wagon to help carry in the good-will -offerings.
"I am off at seven o'clock in the morning, and even at
that hour frequently find the morning's work done in the
house and the women and girls out in the canteloupe or
tomato patches. But generally the books are waiting for
me on a chair or other safe place in the porch, and I exchange
them for others. These books on the chair are a mute testi­mony
to the ray of sunshine they are bringing to that house­hold.
The men are growing more interested and asking
6
For books on farming. One young man whose wife had
selected a novel for him on my first visit was present on my
second. He chose the Life of Lincoln, and said that suited
him better than love stories."
Miss Mast, who has used an automobile instead of a
wagon on the Kent County routes, writes in 1915:
''The first visits are rather trying, for the people almost
invariably think we are book agents, and do not want to
buy any'; when they understand, they are delighted' with
the plan and give us a hearty welcome. * * * We have
many requests for books from people not living on our
routes, and several of of readers take a number of books
and loan them to the neighbors around them, one reserving
a shelf in her book case for Book Wagon books, and having
at least twenty borrowers. * * * The little children are
much interested in the picture books, Jemina Puddle Duck
and Peter Rabbit being great favorites, and are always eager
for another story when the “Library Lady' comes. * * *.
The agricultural books are popular with the men. One man
said a suggestion in Handy Farm Devices had saved him
half a day's work. * * * Our only regret is that we
cannot reach all who would like to have books."
The second year Miss Hopkins writes:
"Every trip confirms my faith in the Book Wagon as
the simplest and most effective agency for developing the
good morals of the people whom it reaches. The Book
Wagon preaches no sermons, but places a book which very
silently and delightfully influences character and makes peo-
ple think. When I think about it I exclaim, 'Let me drive
the Book Wagon, and I care not who makes the laws of the
State. Oh, for some one of wealth who would send the
Book Wagon over all the roads in our county!'
"Judging from my experience so far, it requires a num­ber
of Book Wagon trips over a route to make it worth while .
to go at all. It takes time to form new habits; at least,
7
with grown-up people, and it also takes time for the 'Book
Woman’ to get hold of the mother on the farm to stimulate
her to look beyond the daily grind. Two or three trips will
not accomplish our purpose."
The following year new routes were added, and the
work increased. Miss Hopkins writes again:
"The people on these new routes are as pleased with
the Book Wagon as on the previous one, and I grow more
and more enthusiastic over the work. The young married
men are reading quite little, although I hardly know when
they do it. Often the wife will report her husband as saying
that if I will leave him as good a book as the last he will
be satisfied.
"The demand is almost altogether for fiction, although
there is a fair interest in other classes. I was pleased on
Friday when a twelve-year-old boy noticed The Boy Crafts­man,
and said that was just what he wanted. A mother
told me that her little girl had read her book twelve times.
The young women are enjoying the young girls' series which
was sent from the Commission recently. Miss Alcott never
fails to please, nor does Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, nor
Ann of Green Gables and Pollyanna (God bless her)! I
wish we had a half dozen copies. I loaned one of our copies
(we have two) to a sorrowing mother, whose grown son was
killed by the cars last summer, and she begged for another
book like it.
“I have been fortunate enough to meet some of the
younger farmers who are feeling the progressive spirit, but
hardly know how to 'move out.' There is a bright future
for our county, but so much of it is so isolated and some
of the men so handicapped by lack of education, that it will
mean a lot of work and patience on the part of those who
would help. The Book Wagon will be a great factor in
its development I am sure and if the season's work can
be followed up by a traveling library in each of the thirty-
8
five schools I shall feel that something has been accom­plished
and a permanent work done, as far as it goes. I
was much pleased with what one of the young patrons told
me last week. Her father is a tenant on a farm near town;
her mother is dead, and the father cannot read, but he
greatly enjoys the little girl's books. When she returned
Stories of Great Americans last Saturday she said her
father would say every evening before he got up from the
supper table: 'Now, Frances, get out your book and read to
me.' A number of loans from my house this winter (I
have loaned 690 books) have been to children and young
girls from the most needy sections. Our Woman's Club
supports a Free Library, but it is open only once a week
and then at night, and besides they have nothing like the
amount of juvenile literature that we have. Some young
girls who have been in the habit of roaming the streets at
night have read as many as thirty-seven (37) books in the
past three months."
In 1915 Miss Hopkins writes:
"The families are all interesting to me. There is an
old lady on one of my routes to whom I loaned Rebecca, with
the remark that I expected she would get so interested that
she would neglect her husband. At my next visit, she remined
me of what I had said, and said that she had not neglected
her old man, but feared she had neglected her Bible. She
had become so interested in 'that dear child,' as she called
Rebecca, that she would place the lamp on the floor and
sit down beside it to read after the old man had gone to
bed. When I made my next trip, she was deeply interested
in A Texas Blue Bonnet, which her work had prevented her
from finishing, so she begged to keep it and return later
by post. There was another interesting old lady on this
route to whom the books were a great joy. She had, in
the home a husband and son, both of whom were drunken.
Both of us were glad when I told her that a traveling library
9
would be placed in their district school, and that the teacher,
who passed by the home, would bring her books.
"A mile away a couple of young city breds, who had
been inveigled by a land agent into buying a poor farm,
more poorly located, excited my sympathy. I wanted to
get better acquainted, so whipped up my horse that I might
spend the noon hour with them. The wife gave me a cor­dial
wlecome and went to call her husband. They held a
long conversation in the barnyard, and I began to think it
would not suit. When they came to the Wagon, I suggested
that perhaps they did not have the horse feed to spare (I
take my lunch). 'Oh, yes,' he replied; 'but I'm afraid I
can't get the harness back on the horse right.' This gave
me pause, for I was not sure of my ability, but the plucky
little wife said she believed we could, and shamed me into
taking the risk. They were utterly ignorant of farm life
and work, and had suffered accordingly. His one horse had
died (the neighbors said through his ignorance). They
were glad to have the Book Wagon visit them and read the
farm books with interest.
"In my three years' experience, which has brought me
into contact with six hundred (600) families, I have had
but one man and woman who refused to have anything to
do with the Book Wagon. The man said the work was
started to give me a job, and had better be spent on the
roads. Upon questioning him, I found that he owned no
property, and therefore was not sharing very largely in
the expenses of the work. But most of the people greatly
appreciate the Book Wagon; but my faith in it is not based
on their expression of appreciation, but on my own convic­tions.
My contact is with the mothers, many of them
middle aged, who have little leisure and less inclination for
reading, but who are willing for the younger ones to read.
These latter are the enthusiastic ones.
"An interesting family was on my route this summer.
10
It js composed of a well-read elderly man and two single
daughters. The father was induced to read Pollyanna,
and on my next visit he informed me that a little calf had
come to them, and that he had named it 'Pollyanna.' Some
tired young mothers have gotten rested by reading the
books, and many men, young and old, have enjoyed the Life
of Lincoln, of which we have several copies.
"A new season is before us, and there will be new
people and new experiences, and, I am sure, new friends,
and the world will be a bigger, better place in which to
live because we have found them."
These extracts from Miss Hopkins' and Miss Mast's re­ports
need no comment. They speak for themselves; they
speak for the work; they speak for Miss Hopkins and for
Miss Mast.
Through the agency of the Book Wagon, the Commis­sion
feels that it is doing a work which the traveling library
never could have done. Up until 1912, the Commission had
been trying to meet this need of the country people simply
by sending out traveling libraries, and although they had
accomplished wonderful results in the country school and
Sundays schools, the Commission found that in many in­stances
those books were not reaching the mothers and
fathers and the homes in the remote rural sections. The
Commission had sent libraries to small towns that already
had struggling little libraries, to increase the number of
books on their shelves; it had helped the club women by
providing reference books for their shelves; it had not
reached the country; people in their homes. This was all
the more striking in our State, because Delaware's population,
especially in the two lower counties, is mostly rural.
And so the Book Wagon took up the work and carried it
where the traveling library could not go. The traveling
library stopped at the school house; the Book Wagon con-
11
tinued down the road to the individual home. The travel­ing
library was put down at the school house in a wooden
case; the books from the Book Wagon are handed out to the
farmer by a trained agent, who explains their merits, or,
perhaps, tells one of the stories contained in those books.
The traveling library lacks the personal touch; the Book
Wagon is filled with it. The traveling library comes into
contact with the younger children of school age; the Book
Wagon comes into contact with, the father and mother and
the children of all ages. The Book Wagon creates a desire
for new books and guides the reader; the traveling library,
having no agent, lacks that power.
It is not the intention of the Commission that the Book
Wagon shall continue forever, first of all, because of the
expense attached to its maintenance. It is the Commis­sion's
hope, indeed, it is its determination, that the Book
Wagon shall continue on every route until the people living
on those routes shall have become so filled with the desire
for good reading and so determined to have the books they
want, that they will go or send to that school or Sunday
school, corner store or library center in their vicinity, what­ever
it may be, for books from the traveling library that
has been placed there by the Delaware State Library Com­mission.
The Book Wagon is the library's educational me­dium
in creating the desire and habit of good reading; it is
the libary's advertising agency through which the library
is brought to the attention of those who could not otherwise
know of its existence. The Delaware Commission is con­vinced
that the Book Wagon is just as much a part of any
good State library system in its beginning as is the free
public town library and its branches, or the traveling library
of the country school or store or club. It is the conviction
of the Commission that any good State library system must
Carry books to the homes and seek the people until the
people eagerly seek the books.
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